China's Fentanyl Crisis: Asymmetrical Warfare & Illicit Economies Explained with Vanda Felbab-Brown

"Producer's note: this interview was recorded prior to the Presidential elections"

Today's episode, Vince is joined by Vanda Felbab-Brown, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and expert on national security, organized crime, and illicit economies. She is the author of several books, including Narco Noir: Mexico’s Cartels, Cops, and Corruption and Shooting Up: Counterinsurgency and the War on Drugs.

In their conversation, Vince and Vanda discuss China’s role in the production and export of fentanyl precursor chemicals, the complexities of its regulatory policies, and whether fentanyl could be used as a form of asymmetrical warfare against the United States.

Interested in more of Vanda's Work:
The Sinaloa cartel arrests: Stunning tactical success, strategic blunder?
https://www.brookings.edu/articles/the-sinaloa-cartel-arrests-stunning-tactical-success-strategic-blunder/

Mexico, López Obrador, and Sheinbaum’s presidential victory
https://www.brookings.edu/articles/mexico-lopez-obrador-and-sheinbaums-presidential-victory/

The limits of renewed US-China counternarcotics cooperation (testimony)
https://www.brookings.edu/articles/the-limits-of-renewed-us-china-counternarcotics-cooperation/

How Mexico’s Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación rules
https://www.brookings.edu/articles/how-mexicos-cartel-jalisco-nueva-generacion-rules/

How the Sinaloa Cartel rules
https://www.brookings.edu/articles/how-the-sinaloa-cartel-rules/

Borderland is an IRONCLAD Original.

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